Sweet overload!

In my quest for more holiday recipes to post, I've been getting to know Aunt Susie.

Aunt Susie is a complete stranger. She put together a Ziploc full of old recipes torn out of anything that carried recipes (from the '60s to the '90s, as far as I can tell). Then somebody got rid of it and I picked up from an antique mall. I know Aunt Susie's name because she had a a niece whose thank you card for a 1980s graduation gift accidentally got left in the collection. She also had a SERIOUS sweet tooth (as chronicled in sweetened condensed milk and cookie posts in the past few weeks).

I learned two more things when I hit this "Hearty Holidays" spread Aunt Susie saved from the December 11, 1976 TV Guide:

1. TV Guide ran recipes! My family never got the guide, so I didn't know that. The person who puts up with (and often aids and abets) my cookbook obsession may now have to hide his vintage TV Guides if he doesn't want me riffling through them.

2. Neither TV Guide nor Aunt Susie saw an upper limit to the acceptable level of sweetness in a holiday meal. The recommended menu:

Start out with a ham glazed with maple syrup and brown sugar.

To be health-conscious, add a vegetable side: sweet potatoes glazed in the same syrup/ sugar sludge.

Of course, we need fruit too-- so spicy fruitcake will fit the bill. (Don't want it to seem too plain, though. It is Christmas, after all, so sweeten up those candied fruits with some marzipan decorations.)

All that sweetness is bound to work up a thirst. Wash dinner down with some creamy eggnog!

This spread must have looked good to Aunt Susie if she saved the recipes. I can't think too hard about it, or I will get the dry heaves....

I don't want to be too hard on Aunt Susie, though. The only thing she ever did to me was tempt me to buy this recipe collection. Aunt Susie and I can both agree on this recipe from a 1974 Betty Crocker mail-away offer:

Rich, moist holiday bars packed full of almonds! I would use butter for the margarine (and leave the festive-looking bars topped with red candied cherries and green candied pineapple for you so I could gobble down the ones topped with bitter chocolate), but otherwise, this looks pretty awesome! It's especially cool how one recipe can be made into multiple treats for varying tastes.

Enjoy your last weekend before Christmas, and don't overdose on sweets just yet.